This book has affected me. I've never felt so intensely sad, angry, and heartbroken while reading a book as I was with this one. It gutted me. It changed me. While the writing style is easy to read, it's not an easy read. While I couldn't stop turning page after page after page, I just wanted to stop and forget about this man's pain because it was hard to read. So hard.

I've never dealt with a loss as tragic as this one. I don't even know how you pick up the pieces and keep moving forward when your heart just gets ripped out of your chest in the most awful way possible. I don't know how you don't question every single thing about life.

I put off reading this book for a long, long time. I picked it up from the library back in early February and it's been sitting on my stack of books to read since then because I just didn't want to read a sad story.

And it is a sad story. It is an intensely difficult story to read as Matt takes you through his grieving process. You learn about his wife and the love he had (has?) for her is apparent from every single word. She was his light and his life and his everything. And it just rips me apart that she was taken from him.

And then there is Madeline. Sweet, sweet Maddy. His reason for getting up each morning, she is what kept him moving forward and working through the grief and finding out how to live without his wife.

It's a heart wrenching story. But I'm glad I read it. I think there is healing in reading about this type of tragedy, there is hope that if he can make it through it, I will, too, whenever I have to deal with tragedy of my own. We all will make it through, even when the pain seems like it's going to crush us.

It's a must read, in my opinion. But bring tissues, you're gonna need them.